Cz550 375 H&H 20"ish barrels

[503]

BBTI - Ballistics by the Inch :: Home

(statement of intent)

www.ballisticsbytheinch.com

 

[503]

Doesn't have every caliber but kinda a good guideline on what to expect

 

[Lone Star Bluegrass]

I remember seeing on CZ’s catalog they did a 550 with a 20” barrel—had a SKU and everything. Wonder if anyone here got one.

 

[AHughes]

Do u recall what calibers?

 

[Long Ranger]

Good, I prefer 16" on my .375.

 

[freefall]

My business rifle is a Ruger MkII .338 with the barrel cut to 20", I've been happy with it.

Just got a double in 45-70 and love it .... was also looking at a ruger tropical I just haven't pulled the trigger on one , I need to handle one and see If I'd like it
I do love a single shot although all mine were cheaper ones like the ol h&r or nef

What flavor .45-70?

 

[ay2626]

Blaser makes a few different 375 H&H barrel lengths for the R8. I have the shortest one which is 530mm or just shy of 21 inches. Due to the design of the R8 the overall length of the rifle is less than 37 inches. For comparison that’s about the same as an 1895 Marlin 45-70 lever gun with a 16 inch barrel.

 

[BeeMaa]

This is my CZ550 375H&H that was given a #2 upgrade by AHR with the barrel being cut to 22". I sold it a few years ago. It's about as short as I felt I could go. I don't buy into the "more handy" line of thinking, I had the barrel cut to move the center of balance back to the magazine. This barrel length had no noticeable change in performance according to the game I hunted with it.

If you want a shorter rifle and keep your performance, you need to look at a different design. Single shot and break action rifles are a huge leap in this direction. Another is the Blaser R8 that puts the magazine on top of the trigger group, this effectively shortens the rifle (all other things being equal) by nearly 4". Here is my Blaser R8 375H&H with a 25.5" barrel and it's shorter than the CZ550 was. Balance again is right at the magazine.

 

[AHughes]

My business rifle is a Ruger MkII .338 with the barrel cut to 20", I've been happy with it.

What flavor .45-70?

My first one , it's a baikal .... nothing fancy but it's a handy shooter and really makes me want to save up on one in a classic cartridge just for the heck of it because it's just so fun to shoot and points as quick as my little 20g bird gun

 

[AHughes]

Blaser makes a few different 375 H&H barrel lengths for the R8. I have the shortest one which is 530mm or just shy of 21 inches. Due to the design of the R8 the overall length of the rifle is less than 37 inches. For comparison that’s about the same as an 1895 Marlin 45-70 lever gun with a 16 inch barrel.

I know the 1895 well and with that barrel length and you couldn't pay me to put those inches back on it , everyone's different in what they like I get that

 

[Lone Star Bluegrass]

Do u recall what calibers?

Yes! Sorry. It was a 550 Safarithing only in .375 in that configuration.

 

[John J]

A rule I found works is about 1% per inch. I did this with a 338 RUM. I lost alittle over 30 fps per inch, to a point. Then I lost 99 fps in an inch, cut a half inch off after that. I can't remember what that half inch cost in velocity. I went into the project with the idea that I can always rebarrel if I went to far and lost more than I wanted. I like short barrels and going from a 20" barrel to a 23" on a different rifle in a season seemed to long. In my head mostly but still reasonably short is my preference. After the smith squared and crowned, wound up with a 21.25" 338 RUM. Great for the elk mountains in WY and CO. John

 

[Inline6]

You’ll save about 5” of OAL if you switch to a single shot or double rifle.

Or an R8

 

[AHughes]

Experiment complete .... as non scientific as it may be I did put out the crony and knock an inch off at a time till I stopped at 21" this was my sweet spot for me personally

Honestly I thought I wanted it a inch or two shorter until I shot it a bit and used it and it just feels right so I stopped there

So with factory federal 300g rounds I lost exactly 100fps on several test rounds from 25" to 21" , it averaged 24-25fps on every inch I took off which I'll be honest I thought it would be and increasing curve as length was shortened instead of being equal amounts, not sure why my train of thought I'm just a dumb redneck that lives in the woods but I really thought the shorter I went the more it would lose per each inch and I was wrong!

For those of you that wanted numbers on shorter barrels I appologise I really expected me to like the shorter side of things but the rifle just fits and feels perfect to me I just can't keep whacking away I'm too attached to it now ... I was very very surprised at how exact my numbers were for the rounds used
Several test rounds started at 2599 fps and my ending numbers on 5 shots @ 21" 2 were 2499 exact so I believe it to be pretty justified answer for me on my particular gun ,

yall have a great day and thanks for all the knowldege I know these test have been done before so nothing new here but sometimes you gotta do it yourself and I do appreciate all the help and input

 

[freefall]

Cut it to 18", we want to know!

 

[F. Vaccaro]

AHughes, thanks for letting us know. 2499 with a 300gr .375 will get the job done!

 

[AHughes]

Freefall
So do I .. but if I only had a spare barrel laying around !!! Lol long ranger may have one in 16" if I read his post right he may enlighten us

 

[AHughes]

AHughes, thanks for letting us know. 2499 with a 300gr .375 will get the job done!

I agree and I was going to run my hand loads but I found a new old box of factory federals and figured I'd save my nosler partitions for game and use up these and sorta to run factory ammo through the chronograph and to my surprise the factory ammo was really spot on , I mean to have it go through the chrony at match type speeds I was astonished I really wasn't expecting that I was more expecting to run averages instead of seeing really close matching #s... kinda sad I shot up a box of such good ammo for grins n giggles but hey at least it gave me good numbers to go by so hell what's 100$ in ammo ..... expensive morning non the less

 

[colorado]

If you cut it and have regrets (and I hope you don't have regrets), I have an original CZ 550 375 H&H barrel with about one hundred rounds through it i can send you for free. Very accurate McGowen barrel, same original twist. Harlan at Triple River took it off when he rechambered / rebarreled it to 500 Jeffery.

 

[AHughes]

So far and I'm still finishing up the front sight etc... but I'm liking the 21" length but I'll definitely keep that in mind that's a very generous offer I appreciate it